


Might as well try, right?

by Ilikealotofstuff



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempt at Humor, Autistic Quirrel, Dreamwalking, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging, It stops being a mind swap after a while, I’ll put chapter summaries for the first 3, Kinda, Main character gets iskeaid, Main character isn’t a vessel, Mental Breakdown, Mind Swap, My First AO3 Post, My First Work in This Fandom, No beta we die like the pale king, Not all characters listed will be relevant, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Please skip the first 3 chapters they suck, Post-Embrace the Void Ending (Hollow Knight), Quirrel Needs a Hug (Hollow Knight), Same with the White Lady, Sensory Overload, Sharing a Body, Sorry if some of the characters are OOC I promise they get better., Stimming, The Pale King is a Bad Parent (Hollow Knight), They/Them Pronouns for The Hollow Knight (Hollow Knight), They/Them Pronouns for The Vessels (Hollow Knight), Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, autistic main character, i don’t have time to fix it, i will not elaborate on that, it’s confusing, kind of, read those instead please, the rest are better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28754361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilikealotofstuff/pseuds/Ilikealotofstuff
Summary: The Fabric of Time and space is usually something you shouldn’t tamper with.However The Shade Lord didn’t care.A random human wakes up in a world and a body unlike her own, and with the help of a few people she may just be able to save this world.(Aka my take on the Human becomes a Hollow Knight character AU)
Relationships: The Pale King/White Lady (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [heliophobia](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28486365) by [saharadunes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saharadunes/pseuds/saharadunes). 



> So this is my first published fic, I hope it’s okay.
> 
> The first chapter is different in quality from 2 and 3 since I recently re-did this one, I’m sorry about the roughness of 2 and 3 and the potential spelling and grammar mistakes in advance.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rough summary of what happens in this chapter since I don’t have time to edit it:  
> The Shade lord decides to mess with time and space, they succeed.

The Fabric of Time and Space is usually something you shouldn’t tamper with.

However, the Shade Lord didn’t care.

They looked down on the ruined kingdom of Hollownest, how tragic it was, it took so long for it to be built yet it was quickly destroyed by an angry god.

The Shade Lord may have not liked the Pale king but they certainly hated the Radiance more, the pain the citizens (their friends, their siblings) were caused due to her was unforgivable.

They always wondered if the bugs who were infected were still there deep down, maybe trapped in the dream realm, or just standing helplessly as they watched their bodies become taken over by the infection.

They hoped not, if it was they would have killed the Radiance more brutally.

The Shade Lord looked through all the different timelines, they smiled at the ones that went right, cried at the ones that didn’t, they wished they could help those timelines, they more than enough power to save those after all.

But they couldn’t, all they could do was watch.

The shades chirped sadly at them, they forgot they were connected now, Feelings of sympathy, comfort, and sorrow were being sent through the void.

The Shade Lord chirped at them, they loved their siblings dearly, they always did know how to make them feel better.

They sighed as they contemplated everything, there were only a few things they could do to help after all.

If only they were the God of Dreams too, maybe they could be able to bridge the gap.

The Shade Lord shook the idea off quickly, they weren’t the God of Dreams after all and they wouldn’t want to either way and moved on with something else.

But the gears kept on turning, at the back of their mind, slowly refining themselves until a plan was formed.

A year later a random human wakes up in the Archives in the room of a certain adventurer.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post “I cannot edit and fix this chapter currently so read the summary instead” summary
> 
> Sage wakes up in Quirrel’s body, tries to suspend her disbelief and fails.  
> Oh and Quirrel is still there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tw- Mental breakdown 
> 
> There’s going to be three chapters posted today since that’s all the chapters I have stored in my backlog, I’m currently working through chapter 4 though so if your reading this and enjoying it it should be here soon
> 
> The dialogue here is wonky as frick so sorry about that.
> 
> Edit: This time it’s not edited at 1 AM so it should be higher quality.

Sage never had a lot of dreams 

On most days she usually had dreamless sleep, she just fell asleep and woke up the next day like the last 8 hours didn’t exist, or in worse cases, she got terrible nightmares that she could never seem to get over.

But today was one of those days where she was blessed with an amazing, peaceful dream.

She was floating in a picture-perfect image of the dream realm, from the platforms down to the essence, there was no moth to slay or champion to defeat it was just peaceful.  
Exactly like how a dream should be 

Of course, all that peace was drowned out when she woke up in a different place, one resembling the Archives, a few vials of acid were on the desk, as were a bunch of notes written in code, and a black claw was laying on the desk that seemed to be her hand.

Her first gut reaction was panic 

The second was after remembering that this was just a dream and that she was fine.

It was the perfect time to see what her mind came up with when it came to Hollownest logic anyways, this was a surprisingly logical dream after all, at least by game standards.

Sage sat up straight and took the mask off to feel the edges and started observing it, the mask felt like an actual face in the sense of it didn’t feel like a mask so it was interesting to investigate, two thoughts came into her head 

One: The masks were enchanted.

Two: The masks were enchanted and specifically made for the bug.

Either way, she was sure the masks were enchanted, it was just too seamless, too smooth and it fit too easily.

Now, understandably you would think Sage’s priorities were a bit skewed, masks do seem like the least important thing in this situation.

However, she was very sure this was a dream so she could focus on this if she wanted to, and her mind very much wanted to.

She studied the mask a bit more before moving onto the rest of the archives, she looked at the papers closely, it was written in the weird code most of the archive’s writing was written in, she could figure out a few points but sadly never the full picture.

There was a rather interesting paper about lifeblood and its effects though, shame she would never be able to figure out what it meant when she woke up, or what any of the other papers meant on that note, disappointing but not surprising.

After an hour of sifting through papers which was an odd amount of time for a dream to last, (though it could be 30 minutes in real time) Sage stood up and finally thought to confirm her suspicions, she stared down and examined the body she was currently housing in her dream.

They had a dark blue shell with a light blue underbelly, long dangly black limbs, and long black bunny ear antenna with a beanie-like hat on their head. 

Okay this is fine

She quickly put the mask back on, she had no idea if masks were part of some sort of cultural thing and she rather not cause trouble for Dream Quirrel for not wearing a mask.

This is a dream after all.

This is just a dream.

She walked around the room, wondering if this was a study or a bedroom, the pillows implied a bedroom but it could also be like how she has pillows under her desk, just a small resting place if you needed a break.

And there were no other personal objects other than the stacks of books, and while she had a sizable stack of books back in the real world (some could say too many but one can’t have too many books) she still had art supplies and stuffed toys and small figurines of characters she liked.

Other than the pillows the room just had books, paper, and vials, and it wasn’t even cleaned properly. 

She could understand a messy bed but there was paper everywhere on the floor and books scattered around, she carefully stepped around the room to make sure she didn’t slip, especially since she wasn’t used to this body, it wasn’t too different from a human body since it was bipedal and nothing too heavy was weighing her down but she was slightly unbalanced and the paper was not helping, at some point in time she just laid on the floor and sorted the papers and put them in a corner of the room, determined to clean the entire room at this point.

Halfway through the cleanup process, mostly ordering the papers properly (God she did hate cleaning paper, it just got everywhere and made cleaning a lot harder) a knock on the door startled her out of her trance “Ah!” She shouted out loud, hearing Quirrel’s voice for the first time, it was like she thought it would be, it was soft and slightly high-pitched, slightly horse though surprisingly.

She quickly put the papers on the table, catching the ones that fell, “Quirrel, Are you there?” A voice said, most likely Monomon but it could be another assistant “Yes, I’m sorry hold up!-“ she rushed over and opened a door and luckily it was Monomon, God knows she can’t remember more than two names at a time and pretending to remember someone’s name is the second most stressful thing in life (sure it seemed small but her mind wouldn’t hesitate to blow the situation out of proportion if she allowed it to and she usually did.)

“Oh, Quirrel there you are! I was wondering where you were, I haven’t seen you all day.” Dream Monomon said, her tone was even, a bit soft and there was a slight British accent but it wasn’t irritating which Sage was thankful for.

“I’m-I’m so sorry Madam I was just cleaning my room and I lost track of time-“ Sage started to speak, sputtering and stammering a bit, though she was cut off by Dream Monomon 

“Oh, you finally cleaned your room?” Monomon asked, looking into the room, it wasn’t fully cleaned yet, there were still a few stacks of books that weren’t fixed properly and there were still hundreds of paper scattered around the floor, Sage wouldn’t consider that clean by any margin.

“Ye-yes?” Sage stuttered out, she started panic humming and tapping Quirrel’s foot in panic

“Finally, you really should clean it more,” Dream Monomon patted Quirrel’s head, Sage could feel a bit of acid on it, it didn’t hurt but she could feel it burning through a bit of Quirrel’s shell “I know you prioritize your work a lot but you really should take care of yourself more.” 

Sage secretly agreed, judging by the state of Dream Quirrel’s room, “I’-I’ll try Madam.” 

“Good! I’ll see you later for dinner. I can see you have a bit more clutter to attend to.” Dream Monomon floated away (Sage wondered if that was how all Hollownest Jellyfish live, or if it was just Hollownest magic)

“I’ll see you later Madam." Sage said, walking right back into Dream Quirrel’s room and slamming the door shut.

Sage took a deep breath, that went rather well, didn’t it?

She curled up into a small ball and rocked back and forth, it felt odd not to have a spine in the human sense but it was far from the most important thing right now.

That conversation felt real, not like something in a dream, there were no random jumps in time or weird out of context events, it felt like a real conversation that would happen in real life.

And all the physics and architecture and lighting looked completely real.

Oh God this was real.

Sage-or was it Quirrel now? Started to panic, even more, the humming getting louder and louder as the panic increased.

She continued thinking, what happened to Quirrel? Is he dead? Is she possessing his body? Or was she Quirrel and her human life was just a surprisingly realistic fever dream?

Did she just imagine an entire family? What about them?

Whenever this happens Sage usually had 3 choices

Cry and think about it for a very long time then completely forget about why she was crying.

Suffice to say she’s not forgetting this so that option is thrown out of the window

Jump on the bed and just stare at nothing, and cry, then move on.

Tempting but considering how shallow the “bed” was, it was only a few pillows put in a circle, comfy but there was a good chance you’d just faceplant onto the floor and Sage didn’t think that was a good idea considering she’s wearing a mask (a most likely enchanted mask, but she did not know what the masks were made of and she’s not going to take chances)

And 3. Punch a pile of books and move on.

Now, this might seem like a weird solution but sometimes you just need to punch the shit out of something to feel better.

And this is the one she chose.

In this situation, it was just a lot easier to punch something.

So Sage slammed her arm into a pile of books nearby her, it hurt a bit, bug limbs aren’t high on the durability scale, but that was fine, nothing that would cause issues.

Sage started to calm down a bit, she still stayed on the floor doing nothing but everything felt a lot better, yea, she could handle this, this was going to be fine.

Okay you can do this, first try to figure out exactly what’s happening then panic, Sage thought to herself, she can do that, nothing is stopping her from doing that.

But first, she needed to clean this room, it was just too messy, it just looked awful, and if she didn’t clean it now it would stay in the back of her mind for all eternity How would you even get work done here? Sage thought.

After a few hours of cleaning up the room she finally finished and she wanted to collapse, surprisingly not because this situation was incredibly stressful, it was but her mind was too focused on cleaning to think about it. 

She was just tired from trying to figure out how to categorize all his work when she had no idea what half of it meant.

If the ghost of Quirrel is here she needs to tell him to take care of himself more.

Maybe she was just summoned here to fix his room? Sage chuckled to herself, she had doubts about that idea but it would be hilarious if that was the only reason she was here.

She fell into the pile of pillows, she had the time, right? She didn’t know how time worked in this universe but judging by how it looks outside it seems like Hollownest did have a day and night cycle and a proper weather system on that note, her internal clock is terrible though so it could either be the early afternoon or 4 pm.

Sage kept thinking more and more about Hollownest and things she didn't know about it, partially as a distraction to the bigger issue, she may be stuck here for a while, maybe forever but she rather not think about that right now, she took a book from the newly cleaned shelf and started reading, getting more and more drowsy as she went on before she fell into a dreamless sleep.

Or at least she thought she did.

When she woke up the first thing she heard was the silent pitter-patter of rain, a sound she welcomed dearly, she felt different, maybe it really was just a surprisingly realistic fever dream this whole time.

Opening her eyes the first thing she saw was the gentle oranges and yellows of the dream realm and she sighed in disappointment. 

The second thing was that she had her skin again.

She cheered, it felt so good to be back in her body, even if it is just in this realm.

Wait does that mean the Radiance is here or do the bugs just frequent the dream realm?

But currently, she didn’t care a lot about that, she was just happy she had her own body back, even if it’s just in the dream realm.

She even had her clothes, a flower printed jacket with a white base with a black shirt and pants, and bright red shoes one of her friends gave her.

A subdued feeling of melancholy washed over her, she wondered if time stopped in her world or it just went on normally? Hopefully everyone is okay, or maybe this is a Narnia situation and when I get home nothing would be different, it should be fine, it’s going to be fine.

And anyway, If she can get here through a dream then it shouldn’t be that hard to find a way out.

While she was celebrating having her own body back she ignored the two other beings in the realm

One on up high and the other one about to be known

“Ahem.” A voice said suddenly, one she recognized easily, Sage turned and saw the face of a rather tired and frustrated bug

“I’m sorry to interrupt your celebration but I would like to know who you are and why you’re in my body if that’s alright with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did model some of Sage’s behavior off mine, I do sometimes focus on rather arbitrary things and her thought process when she was deciding what to do was also mine.
> 
> Most of her mannerisms are modeled off of me, except for the cleaning part, I don’t care one bit about that honestly.
> 
> The dialogue here is wonky, sorry about that I really didn’t know how to write thatconversation.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post “This chapter was not properly edited or redrafted so read the summary instead until I have time to fix it”
> 
> Quirrel and Sage talk about what to do, that’s it, that’s the chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The dialogue and pacing are really wonky here, I wrote a lot of this late at night or early mornings.
> 
> The chapters should be more streamlined after this don’t worry.
> 
> Edit: It’s now properly edited and not edited at 1 AM

Sage didn’t know what to say.

Seriously what do you say to someone when you accidentally steal someone’s body, Sage thought you can’t just go “oh yea sorry about that” this is a violation of privacy, I can’t just say that-

Okay, no time to panic, just say something Sage thought, she had to say something.

“Are...are you okay?” Quirrel asked, frustration and concern lacing his voice, okay you don’t have to start the conversation anymore just respond Sage took a deep breath “No-No, not at all, I’m very sorry for this I just don’t know why I’m here and who you are, well I know who you are but I don’t know why I’m you-” 

Quirrel stared at her for a while, “Are-are you some kind of Nosk? You're unlike any Nosk I’ve read about.”

“Oh no no, I hate them, they creep me out, that’s a very understandable conclusion though.” Sage said, her hands fidgeted as she tried to figure out what to say “Listen Quirrel, uh I would explain if I knew what was happening but I do not so I cannot.

“Really? Then how are you here, you must know something?” Quirrel mask’s eyes (definitely enchanted) narrowed

Sage sighed, she couldn’t blame him, she wouldn’t trust the person who stole her body, even if it was an accident. “But it is the truth, I’m supposed to be with my family doing...something.”

Quirrel’s eyes softened but he was still tense, Sage had an idea of the thoughts that were going through his head “Okay I know you're on edge since someone accidentally stole your body, which yea isn’t much better but I can at least prove I’m not Nosk variant.”

Quirrel perked up, “Well, it does seem fair and you don’t seem to have ill-intent.” Sage noticed his eyes scrunch a bit in excitement, huh, that’s a mood.

“Well Nosks first of all aren’t sentient, so there’s that and no one knows the true form of Nosks since they take the form of their victims' loved ones,” Her hands started to gesture as they usually do when she talks, sometimes pretending that she was writing on a board “and you’ve never seen a citizen like me before so it doesn’t make sense…”

She continued to yammer on about Nosks which then somehow transitioned into a bunch of random theories and thoughts about Nosks like if someone had amnesia and didn’t remember someone they loved in the past but they found someone else who would the Nosk turn into? It was a question that was bugging her for a while and she never really found a good answer to it.

And Quirrel even joined the discussion after a while, apparently there was very little knowledge about Nosks, only that they were masters of disguise, nothing too specific like the nature of Nosks or even their basic appearance.

“Huh, I've heard hundreds of interpretations of Nosks but a black rib cage with an orange stomach is new.” Quirrel said “Most interpretations are these formless black blobs.”

“Well the orange is only because of the infection, it’s most likely just acid that got changed due to it,” Sage said nonchalantly, Quirrel went dead quiet, her eyes darted to Quirrel his mask was furrowed and he was staring at the ground, clearly in thought “Hm?”

“What infection?” Quirrel said quietly

Sage went quiet, she was sure the infection at least started, there were a few papers about the void and The Old Light, after all, one of them was even about the battle between the two, it was told a bit like a myth though which was weird to Sage, she would expect that if she was in the far future but she was clearly in the past-

Oh

Ohhhhhhhh

It hasn’t happened yet 

Oh God it hasn’t happened yet

Sage cursed, how do you even explain that? “Oh hey yeah I’m from the future and your world was decimated by an infection that killed 90% of the population” I can’t just say that can I? 

Okay don't over complicate this, just say it Sage, got it? She took a deep breath, she could do this

“Oh, well you see, I’m kind of from the future, not your future an alternate future where your world was decimated from an infection caused by a god-“

“Why didn’t you lead with that?!” Quirrel shouted in panic, his hands clawed on her shoulders, she flinched retracting from his grip, he stopped “I’m-I'm sorry”

“No, no it’s okay I did just dump all he that on you and it didn’t even that hurt much because of my jacket.” She could tell Quirrel was still remorseful “Seriously don’t worry I’m okay, my jacket is like your shell it’ll be fine.”

“I see, it’s a rather odd shell but I don’t think that’s what we should be talking about should we?

“Yea I guess…” Sage trailed off

“Well then, would you please tell me what you meant by that?”

“Oh, yeah, well you see in my world your world doesn’t exist? It’s hard to explain but your world doesn’t exist in the usual sense.”

“Please elaborate”

“Oh okay uh, you see your world is like a story, yes it’s a story, a visual one, like a play, but it's not a play.” Did Hollownest have such a thing as video games? She stared at Quirrel, oh yeah being told your world is a story would be overwhelming, “Oh don’t worry this world is still real, it’s just in my world it isn’t, there’s probably a world where my world is a play to so don’t think about too hard.” She wasn’t sure if that was comforting but she had to try

So after that attempt at an explanation, she continued to detail the events before and after the infection,

She talked about the Raidence, or how Quirrel knew her The Old Light and how she was forgotten or so everyone thought

She talked about the void and the sacrifices the Pale King took to contain The Old Light.

She talked about the ruined kingdom, the soul sanctum, and their experiments, the bugs in the pleasure house, the hundreds of corpses that littered the kingdom, including the ones about that were reanimated to do her bidding.

“And that’s, that I guess, I’m now here, some years in the past of a different world, in your body…” Sage finally said, 

“That seems like a tall tale you know?” Quirrel awkwardly replied, apparently the language of joking about things that made you uncomfortable was universal.

“It does, doesn’t it? But it’s the truth.” Sage sighed “I wish I could do something about it though, it just feels so disheartening being here but not being able to do anything.” She grimaced, it would be so much easier if she was the vessel, she could just dash out to the Resting grounds, get the dream nail and kill The Radiance before she could do anything too severe, sure she’d still have to beat the pantheons if they existed around this time but she could do it, she had to.

But she couldn’t, Quirrel’s not the wielder and the only way to defeat the Radiance is to use the dream nail to either go into the Godseekers mind, who only came when the land was destroyed, or wait until The Hollow Knight was chained up.

And it didn’t even matter since she couldn’t do anything! What’s the point of being sent back if she can’t even help.

“What do you mean you can’t do anything?” Quirrel asked, not angrily but curiously “I understand I’m not the welder, whoever that is but you could still do something.” 

“But we’re two people and one of us is stuck here, what could we do, even if I prevent multiple atrocities nothing is stopping the Radiance from causing more destruction, and I can’t stop the Pale king from creating the vessels.” Sage put her hand against her head “There’s nothing substantial I can do that I know of at least.”

“Well as the bug whose body you're inhabiting I cannot allow you to just stand by!” Quirrel shouted 

“I’m not going to stand by, I wouldn't allow myself to, I’m just saying that there’s nothing that I can do that will be substantial, at least that I know of.”

“Then find something then! You don’t know everything about my world right?”

“Well yea, I didn’t know bugs could freely interact in the dream realm while they slept, I thought only the moths did.”

“Well, moths are usually much more proficient in this than I or most bugs are they usually can manipulate and travel the realm while most bugs like me are stuck in their own pockets of it,” Quirrel interjected.

“Oh, that’s is rather interesting, though couldn’t someone with enough practice learn how to manipulate this realm?”

“Bugs have done that, never to the proficiency of the moth tribe though.” His hands tried to form something using the dream essence, but it fizzled out before anything substantial could form “See, but you're not from this world, who knows how this realm would interact with you.”

“Yea, but I can’t face a god!” It’s difficult to battle the Raidence in-game, much less in her realm, how much time did she have anyway? It could take months to even a few years to be proficient enough in dreams to battle the Radiance and that’s assuming she could!

“Well statistically you shouldn’t be here in my body but here you are!” Quirrel chuckled 

“You seem to have dealt with this surprisingly well.” Sage smiled, it wasn’t a bad thing, on the contrary, she was glad about that but she was a bit worried he was just ignoring this for later (not that she had the right to say anything about that)

“Eh when your Monomon’s apprentice you deal with these situations surprisingly often”

“That's a bit concerning but still-, I don’t know how much time I have, no one knows the exact timeline, only that these events happened either before or after the infection, do I have a year? A few months? Who knows?" Her eyes met Quirrel’s as she thought about it, maybe it was even shorter than that.

“Well the other side of not knowing if you do is that maybe you have more time you think, it’s better to try instead of giving up immediately right?” Quirrel nudged her with his elbow, and Sage conceded, he did make a lot of great points and he was right, you never know until you try.

And maybe she could do something

“Spoken like a true explorer, you're doing well in the role already and the story hasn’t even officially started.” Sage patted him on the back, she stood up and rubbed her hands together, “Okay, okay if we’re doing this it’s time to plan, do you have a nail?”

Quirrel was obviously a bit shaken by her sudden change of attitude but replied calmly “Well, I have basic nail training and a training nail since it’s necessary for fieldwork, I never enjoyed it though.”

“Well we need one so that’s good enough,” Sage paced around the dream realm, all her doubt was just shoved away onto a shelf “but if we’re going to fight the infection we need better than that and…” Sage looked at Quirrel “And what about Monomon, or the King or well anyone? How do we explain this to them?” Sage asked.

Quirrel sighed “I don’t know and I don’t think we can, who would believe you after all?”

“True,” Sage laid down and propped her leg on top of her other “I guess we’ll just cross that bridge when it gets there.” Sage smiled at him, they talked for a bit longer and more in detail about the Radiance and a few theories were flung around the realm.

Overall it was a good time.

“I just realized something,” Quirrel said “I forgot to ask your name, what is it?”

“Oh, it’s Sage.”

“I see, well Sage, let’s do this shall we.” Quirrel grinned and held out his hand  
Sage grabbed his hand and smiled 

“Yea, Let’s do this!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tangents and the hand gestures are also a habit of mine, the hand gestures will be quite important later though.
> 
> Oh and Critique and Constructive Criticism is welcome btw so go ahead I don’t mind.
> 
> Also I’m sorry if Quirrel is a bit OOC, that gets fixed in chapter 4 I promise.
> 
> Also I mentioned how Sage’s mannerisms are partially molded after mine and same with her bouncing off issues quickly, I have cried over an hour straight then talked like nothing happened after.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _‘Oh, so you were stuck in the subconscious?’_ Sage asked. She tried not to get too distracted by everything else, the Archives looked even more gorgeous than it was in-game, it was so much more alive, with hundreds of tanks, scientific “papers.” (She wasn’t sure what they would be called.), and the colors danced brightly in the light, it was just absolutely stunning.
> 
> ‘It would seem so.‘ Quirrel seemed a bit on edge, as she tried to continue the conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh thank you guys for looking at this rather stupid fic.
> 
> Also thank you for the critique I’ll try to improve the grammar from here on out.
> 
> If there’s any minor mistakes please tell me I do not have a good eye for grammar.

Sage woke up by being gently prodded by Monomon’s tentacles, she forgot that they had dinner.  
She even forgot how hungry she was. She clenched her stomach as she ignored her hunger. She still had to talk to Monomon after all.

She quickly apologized to Monomon for the delay. It was a lot easier to mimic Quirrel’s mannerisms now that she talked to him, even if her impression wasn’t that good and she went with Monomon to dinner.

_It’s weird not talking to Quirrel anymore_ Sage thought, she tapped Quirrel’s feet. <1>I wonder if he’s okay there.

_‘I’m doing well so thank you for your concern,’_ A new voice said.

_‘JESUS- Quirrel? You're here, how?’_

_It seems like it. I don’t know why but I am now.’_ A small mental image of Quirrel came to her mind as she imagined him talking _‘I’m guessing it’s because we met in the dream realm, somehow it brought me back to my conscious._

_Oh, so you were stuck in the subconscious?’_ Sage asked. She tried not to get too distracted by everything else, the Archives looked even more gorgeous than it was in-game, it was so much more alive, with hundreds of tanks, scientific “papers.” (She wasn’t sure what they would be called.), and the colors danced brightly in the light, it was just absolutely stunning.

_‘It would seem so.‘_ Quirrel seemed a bit on edge, as she tried to continue the conversation. 

_So, the subconscious, how was it?’_

_‘Terrible, I wasn’t even sure what was happening, it just felt so dark.’ Sage shivered, it seems that the mental pathway also translates emotions. ‘Everything was so blurry…’_

_‘I’m-I’m sorry you had to deal with that’_ Sage said,

_‘It’s fine.’_ A few uncomfortable seconds passed _‘So how does it feel right now?’_

_‘Odd, everything’s the same except I’m not doing anything.’_ Sage bit her metaphorical lip _‘I see..._

They didn’t talk about anything else as Sage continued up the archives and sat down on the chair which was unsurprisingly metal, same with the table, both had intricate designs and Monomon's mask imprinted at the middle of those designs, like the bench that is seen in the game.

She stared at the food, which was a bunch of different colored leaves with a few pieces of meat Sage couldn't identify, she was about to take a bite until she realized something.

_‘Hey Quirrel, how exactly do you eat?’_

_“How come? Don't you eat?"_

_‘Yea but masks were never this important, they were used for festival purposes not in daily life, I just want to avoid committing any cultural faux pas.’_ Sage said. She’s watched enough sci-fi shows to know that was a bad idea, and also she had no idea what the bugs' mouths were like, and honestly, she preferred it that way.

_'Just lift the mask a bit and eat the food._ Quirrel seemed a bit despondent, but Sage couldn’t blame him, considering what was going on.

'Oh, thank you.' She started to eat in silence. The food was tasteless for her but she didn't mind, her allergies usually made it so she couldn't taste anything anyway so it didn't bother her one bit.

"Quirrel are you okay?" Monomon asked randomly, Sage looked up "Usually you talk about what you've been working on or a book you’ve read around this time, is something the matter?"

"Oh well..." Sage tried to think of things to say, there was only so many things she could talk about, at least things that she could talk about without blowing their cover if she could talk about anything she would but there were restrictions to what she could say, and she didn't even know what those were.

(Oddly enough she felt like she was sinking into cold black slime.)

"Quirrel, Are you there?" Monomon's said, bringing her back to reality, she was about to say "Yes" when she realized that she wasn't in control anymore.

Quirrel looked up at Monomon a shaky voice coming out of his mouth "Yes, yes I am."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual Critique is always welcome and here’s a few notes.
> 
> If someone knows how to italicize words in ao3 please tell me, I actually can’t figure out how to do it.
> 
> So uh, yea they can kinda switch, I don’t know how to describe it-  
> I have rules for it that you’ll find out soon enough, it’s a bit like a game mechanic in that sense.
> 
> Also POV will get weird from this point on, whoever is controlling is going to be the POV and since later in the story they switch a lot meaning they POV will switch a lot, just fair warning.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh yea so about the update schedule the shortest is 2-5 days and the longest would be a week or two, it depends on how much time I have and if I can actually write properly.
> 
> On that note this chapter is a bit rushed and is also the first draft.
> 
> Actually all the chapters are first drafts.
> 
> It’s not the worse but it the pacing is a bit off and the flow is a bit clunky but it isn’t bad.
> 
> If the quality is a bit inconsistent that’s because I wrote half of this at night and a bit of this is old to so it isn’t the best.

Quirrel took a deep breath.

You forget how good it feels to breathe when you haven’t in a while.

“I’m sorry,” Quirrel rested his head on his hand “I’m just a bit dizzy.” 

That was an understatement, he knew it was more than just a small bout of dizziness. Fatigue settled into his limbs as they flopped around weakly, he shivered and he gripped his hand tightly on the chair, terrified of drifting off again.

Momomon wasn’t buying that of course, she could always tell when he was lying. “You know it’s okay to take a break, I don’t want you to get any worse.”

“No, no, it’s okay Madam, I just need a day off that’s all.” Quirrel said, forcing a smile.

Monomon didn’t push further, but she did grab a bottle of medicine and set it in front of him a few minutes later. “Just in case it gets worse, the Moss Guards said that it helps with headaches.” 

“Thank you Madam but I promise I won’t need it."Quirrel said, pushing it to the side of the table.

“The last time you said that you were bedridden for 3 days.” Monomon patted him on the back “Anyway it’s only there if you need it.”

They continued eating, Quirrel didn’t know what to talk about, there isn't a lot to talk about when you were "asleep" for almost the whole day 

But he was able to talk about a few of the things Sage told him, in the facade of a story he thought of while cleaning his room of course. (where was Sage anyway? It was surprising she hasn’t said anything yet considering what just happened.) 

Monomon seemed to enjoy the story, he even saw her cry a bit when he talked about the ending and what happened to The Hollow Knight, he wondered how she would feel if she knew the things he said happened in an alternate future (and this reality if their not able to do anything his mind helpfully supplied.)

She was probably better off not knowing anyway, everyone was.

After eating he back to his room, it looked so different, he had to thank Sage later, she did a great job cleaning the room, even the vials and papers were sorted, he didn’t know how she did it without knowing the code but no matter, it was clean and proper and Quirrel could appreciate how nice his room now looked.

 _‘Sage, are you there?”_ He finally decided to ask _‘You haven’t talked since we did...this.”_

There was no response, but he could feel a tiny string of fear in the recesses of his mind.

 _‘Sage? Are you okay!?’_ He had an idea of where she was and even though they just met he didn’t like the idea of anyone having to be there one bit, and he was only in there for a while.

There was still no response but a wave of panic and confusion washed over him, he winced _'Oh okay, just try to get out, I’ll help you if you need it.’_

It seems like one way to get out was to get directly acknowledged through a conversation as a few minutes later Quirrel could feel her presence, he let her rest for a while, he knew how it felt and he didn't want to overwhelm her so he stayed silent.

 _‘Are you okay now?’_ Quirrel asked.

 _‘Ye-Yes, thank you.’_ Their voice sounded shakey, a bit like a floor creaking 

_‘It’s no problem.’_ Quirrel said, mulling over what to say _‘So we did that.’_

 _‘Yeah, yeah we did.’_ His mind was running a mile a minute quickly shuffling through multiple reasons and possibilities, trying to figure out how it happened in the first place.

_‘Are we going to talk about it?’_

_‘Yea we will I just-‘_

Quirrel sighed, _‘Just talk when you're okay, I’ll wait.’_ _“Thanks, I just need to organize-words.’_ She didn’t talk for a while and he sat down at his desk, waiting for her to come back in.

 _‘Hello again sorry.’_ She said, popping back in _‘Okay so we don’t have enough evidence to prove anything however I already have a few ideas on what that was and what’s going on-“_

 _“Hang on, you're talking too fast please slow down.’_ Quirrel sighed, Monomon would act like this at times usually, he could follow it but Sage’s words were so mixed and slurred that it almost impossible to follow.

 _‘Oh sorry, I’ve heard that before I really should get it under control and that’s why-‘_ she hesitated _‘Anyways it could always just be completely random which would suck since how do you even control that if there’s nothing that would trigger it then how do you even learn to control it-‘_ she sputtered a bit at the end, she reminded him of an over-excited Vengefly, they were kept as pets by some bugs and could easily wreck shop if they were left unsupervised.

He should know, he had one named Spindle 

_‘And that’s why I need you to tell me everything you felt at that moment, and I do mean everything, also is it okay if you write the notes? I don’t know your language and I don’t want to deal with language studies today.’_ Quirrel buffered as he tried to process everything.

 _‘O-Okay, well I was rather desperate at that time and well, it’s not fun to see your own body be piloted by someone else, and it feels a lot worse when they talk to people you know.”_ Quirrel shook his head _‘It’s fine, it’s just…’_ he thought about it for a moment, he just met her a few hours ago, he didn’t want to share that but he had to, it’s for research purposes after all and it didn’t really matter what he felt-

 _‘You know it’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it, we all have feelings we don’t like talking about.’_ She sounded a lot calmer honestly, Quirrel didn’t know what to make of her, it was like she bounced from one emotion to the next, never stopping to think. _‘Heck you probably have it worse than me, you're the one dealing with the existential crisis.‘_ a hollow laugh filled his mind, _‘I may be dealing with inter-dimensional culture shock but at least I’m somewhat familiar with everything.’_

Quirrel stayed silent for a while, he took down the notes, there was no reason why he shouldn’t, she was fine with him omitting some details after all, but after that Quirrel wasn’t sure what to do, he could read a book but he wasn’t sure which book, he’s already reread all of them more than three times and they were getting a bit stale.

 _‘So, how’s your world?’_ Quirrel finally asked.

_‘Really shitty but it isn’t the worst, I can name 5 other worlds that are worse off than mine, sure we have global warming, discrimination, multiple incompetent governments, and a global pandemic but it isn’t all bad._

_‘We have good games, good shows, and movies, I have cool friends you know, they’d send me videos of cool chess plays and stupid jokes, I’d viciously recommend them cool shows and games.’_ She sighed, as her voice lowered, _‘I hope they're okay…’_ an awkward silence passed as Quirrel tried to think of something to say to comfort or distract her.

He couldn’t though, and she couldn’t, they just sat in silence hoping the other would say something.

None of them said anything else that day though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like chess, it’s a fun game, though I'm not the best at it, I think Quirrel would enjoy it honestly due to all the strategy and prediction involved in playing.
> 
> Also dimensional homesickness sucks, especially if it’s mixed with culture shock.
> 
> I did mention Sage isn’t a self-insert though I did give her some of my interests though so a lot of the stuff she references in future chapters are stuff I also enjoy.
> 
> It’s actually a bit plot relevant due to how I’m structuring the dream realm so that’s going to be fun.
> 
> Anyways criticism is always appreciated and welcome and goodbye!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, she took a good look at the city and looked in awe at the hundreds of lanterns that hung around the city, like there was a festival happening, a few guards were stationed around the city patrolling the street, a few shops were open which were restaurants but most of them were like normal shops, it looked spotless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehhehe it’s been a while hasn’t it...
> 
> Mindspeak will now just have these (‘) and no mor italics, it’s just a lot easier to write, though it is pretty obvious that it’s mindspeak currently. 
> 
> I finished this some days ago then I thought that version was terrible so I redid it completely.
> 
> This ones is just a lot better by a huge amount, I’m really glad I changed it.

A few weeks have passed since Sage first came here and life’s been okay.

Sure it could be better but it wasn’t terrible.

They’ve been staying in The Archives, Quirrel teaching her the codes and jobs so that when she pilots she isn’t flying blind and while they were asleep it was mostly planning and trying to figure out where exactly they were timeline-wise.

However, this would be the first time they’d go out since Quirrel trusted her not to mess things up now, at least she thought he did, she was admittedly still anxious over it, her brain overworking itself to the point that she was about to explode.

She knew it was completely irrational of course, Quirrel was going to pilot for most of the trip anyway so she didn’t have to do a lot and they were only going there to get her familiarized anyway and to look for anything that could help them so it wasn’t going to be that bad, hopefully.

They continued on the pathway, taking note of the things that were there and the things that were not, the void gateways were surprisingly still there but they were deactivated, ‘Did you disable it?’ She asked, he shook their head ‘Hm? No, it was disabled when we got here, do you know what it is?”

‘It’s a void gateway, I’m surprised it’s here, must have been a leftover of the old civilization.” She replied, looking at the inside of the gateway ‘That’s odd...there’s no dust.’ they continued on the pathway, pointing out other things she noticed, like how there were no sporgs or how the mushroom balloon things weren’t floating around here anymore.

They got to the bridge where it suddenly became more crowded, bugs started pushing and shoving, but the worst part was the sound, she winced, it felt like a hot iron fork poking at their shell or nails scratching on the chalkboard while speakers were playing rock music at maximum volume.

She started to go into a brisk walk and tried to dodge the rest of the bugs, she had to stop to be checked by a guard but Quirrel got everything sorted before anything could happen.

She went up a few levels, trying to find a nice quiet room but there were bugs everywhere, it made sense of course, this was the main capital of Hollownest but she did not adequately prepare for this.

‘Are, are you okay.’ Quirrel asked after she almost bumped into a pillar, where did that even come from?

‘No...I’m just not good with loud or irritating noises.’ 

‘Well I see why, I’ve lived here my whole life and I can see why it would be overwhelming.’ 

‘No, no that’s not what I meant, it’s a lot, stronger than that, it’s not just overwhelming it’s like…’ Sage snapped their hands trying to find an appropriate comparison, when did it get so bright? She shut her eyes quickly ‘It’s like if everyone was arguing in the background while someone was poking you with a hot nail, it’s not just overwhelming, it’s painful.’ She said ‘if that makes sense’

‘Yea...yea it is.’ She took a deep breath ‘I’ll be fine, I just wasn’t expecting this.’ She bumped into someone “Sorry!” the bug didn’t seem to hear her though and just continued walking, an annoyed grunt coming out of their mouth.

‘Well, that’s going to haunt me in my sleep.’ An awkward laugh came out of their mouth, She then stretched their arm forcefully, it ached a bit but she started to calm down. ‘There, that’s better.’ 

Finally, she took a good look at the city and looked in awe at the hundreds of lanterns that hung around the city, like there was a festival happening, a few guards were stationed around the city patrolling the street, a few shops were open which were restaurants but most of them were like normal shops, it looked spotless.

“Wow…” Sage looked in awe as she walked down the street, looking at the various flyers and shops. “It’s so bright.”

‘Yea.’ Quirrel sounded a bit dizzy. ‘Too bright if you ask me, it always hurts to be here.’

‘Oh, do you have light sensitivity glasses? Wait crap you might not have those uhh, do you have something you wear that blocks out the light, I can wear them if you want.’

‘Ah thank you but no sadly, Monomon hasn’t figured out how to make these “light sensitivity glasses” as you call them.’ She took a look in a few stores, one store sold stone and glass sculptures, the other sold jewelry made from crystals which were in different colors.  
‘Well, that sucks.’

‘Yes it, sucks.’ Quirrel said tentatively.

‘So...where too?’ Sage asked, ‘You didn’t tell me what we need to do.”

‘I didn’t? Are you sure?’

Sage looked back as far as her mind could think, which was 3 days ago ‘Nope, I’m pretty sure you didn’t.”

‘Huh, I was sure I did...Well, I need to replenish some of the lab materials there’s also the flask you broke that I have to replace,’ Sage looked away sheepishly, even though Quirrel wasn’t physically there ‘oh, and also buy some food and that’s it.’

‘I see,’ Sage looked around, most of the bugs were beetles and ants but she could see a few mushrooms and a bug that seemed to be a moth ‘can we go somewhere later, if we have the time of course.’ 

‘Yes of course, where do you want to go.’

‘Oh just, around, I want to check out this world, see the sights, and maybe find a magical dream teacher.’ Sage muttered at the end.

She could tell he was slightly confused about the “magical dream teacher” part but he just went with it and said ‘Well of course, why would I decline that if you need to save everyone and-‘ he stopped ‘yes if we have time.’

‘Oh, thank you!’ They walked aimlessly for a while since she had no idea where to go and they were waiting for the other to ask ‘Yea can you-‘

‘Yes of course-‘ He said as they finally started to walk to where they needed to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yea the ending is still awkward but eh it’s better than the others ones.
> 
> I was so excited to get out of the archives, most of my more definite planning was after the beginning and since I’m not good at beginnings at all it was just a mess.
> 
> I really cannot believe I’m sticking with this, I usually panic and delete my entire work after a few chapters but I’m really doing this, I’m super excited to see how this goes.
> 
> As always critique is always welcome and goodbye!

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first fic, I hope you enjoy!  
> I’ll add random notes of what happened if chapter here if there is anything to comment about:


End file.
